Funday PawPet Show

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Rating: "TV-PG-DLS". The "DLS" is mostly irreverent comedy and mild innuendo, with much of the latter coming from the mouth of Poink. As Yappy puts it, "Don't just plop your eight year old down in front of the show and let them watch it."

The Funday Pawpet Show originated in November of 1999; Yappy and friends were working on their puppetry at his home when they came up with the idea of streaming a puppet show on the Internet. Various changes have come and gone — in equipment, location, and performers alike — but the show continues to this day, with some gaps and re-runs. The show's 400th episode aired Dec 21, 2008 and it held its 10-year anniversary in November 2009. The FPS crew also perform live shows at various conventions around the country, most notably at Megaplex.

Contents

The show is hosted by a cast of animal puppets, all mostly made by Folkmanis. The primary roles are played by the main Master of ceremonies sheepdog, Mutt, along with his sheepdog stand-in, Ezra. All the while, everyone's favorite Poink T. Ferret acts as the show's free-willed comic, often with the beloved Lili playing along with his lines.

As the show is four hours long, its content is open-ended and nearly all of it is completely improvised. Aside from the opening and closing sequences, other fixed content includes:

Roll Call, in which a guest or cast member, usually flummoxed by constant /nick changes, attempts to read the screennames of everyone in the IRC channel.

Photo Captions, in which viewers are encouraged to send in a caption for a humorous photograph.

Shout Outs, in which viewers and Channel chatters post personal and general interest messages, which are read aloud.

ArtJam, in which viewers are encouraged to send in original artwork. Current practice is to begin showing these at 9:30, so as to allow for completion of themed pieces, yet leave time for the show to wind down.

Any themes or topics for the evening are either brought up during conversation or are planned out in advance, as in the case of a cast member leaving or a statutory holiday, for example.

Spits or Swallows is an event held infrequently, in which the cast (and sometimes, guests) give their honest opinions about food items that they taste on camera. The food is usually sent in by viewers, and can range anywhere from obscure Asian beverages to new fast food items; in some extreme cases, the cast has "enjoyed" MREs, durian fruit and Cheeseburger-in-a-Can.

Guests who visit the show often participate by being interviewed by the PawPets and the IRC audience, and are usually given the Pink Flamingos Challenge, in which they are asked to eat a (preferably chocolate) confection while watching the finale to the film Pink Flamingos, in which drag queenDivine eats actual dog feces (during which, "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?" plays.) Because of the graphic nature of this scene, the film itself is forbidden from being seen on screen and only the guests' reactions are taped.

Recently,[when?] a segment entitled Subservient Fursuit has been broadcast on an infrequent basis. It is based on the Subservient Chicken viral marketing campaign by Burger King and features a fursuiter having their actions directed by the IRC audience. The word "Fursuit" in the title is replaced by the fursuit's name at the time of the broadcast. While the show is not intended to be rebroadcast or redistributed at any point, many of the Subservient Fursuit segments have wound up on YouTube.

The Funday PawPet Show also features videos submitted from its viewers, ranging from homemade films to professional animated shorts to humorous commercials. Several PawPet groups across the United States have also sent in their own videos; these outside contributors include:

The show costs around $2,400 (excluding equipment costs) for a year of broadcasting; costs include licensing for the music played on the show, as well as the bandwidth needed for broadcast.

Increasingly, the majority of the funding for this is provided by donations, and the show has run a number of "telethons" during their history to raise funds. The most recent telethon was on 23 November 2013. As of the closing song $7,248 had been raised. The highest ever raised was $10,052 in 2007.

2 was also the inspiration for what was to become Strawberry. When visiting the show after Megaplex 2003, he puppeted along to The PawPet Song with the pink Pecker, and then in a high, skwawky voice, began to complain about arm burn as he was pressed into doing a second song. Almost two years later in 2005, after using the pink Pecker in homage to 2 to puppet to The PawPet Song, Jess used a similar voice to interact with another character afterward — and Liesl followed shortly using a similar voice with the blue Pecker — and Strawberry and Blueberry were born.

The title animation and logo is the work of numerous people, including:

The closing theme is "Adios, Au revoir, Auf Wiedersehen" from The Lawrence Welk Show and the lyrics are as follows:

Good night, Good night, until we meet again,
Adios, Au revoir, Auf Wiedersehen 'til then.
And though it's always sweet sorrow to part
You'll know you'll always remain in my heart.
Good night, sleep tight and pleasant dreams to you.
Here's a wish, and a prayer, that every dream comes true.
And now 'til we meet again,
Adios, Au revoir, Auf Wiedersehen.
Good night!